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Sacred Music Colloquium Keynote Address – August 15, 2015 Our Lady of the Mountains, Jaspar, GA Rev

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Sacred Music Colloquium Keynote Address – August 15, 2015 Our Lady of the Mountains, Jaspar, GA Rev 1 Sacred Music Colloquium Keynote Address – August 15, 2015 Our Lady of the Mountains, Jaspar, GA Rev. J. David Carter, JCL Pastor and Rector of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul Chattanooga, TN (2nd Kings 22: 3-4, 8-13,18-20; 23: 1,3) King Josiah's story is one of inheriting a kingdom full of foreign elements and then discovering that there actually was a law that described what God wanted. With great zeal he went about implementing the Law and Israel was put on right footing again. Reading this story before a talk on the state of Sacred Music in the Church today might seem a little melodramatic – And it is. The regulations about how the sacred music of the church is to be carried out should not be equated directly with the words of the Book of the Law given to Moses in the desert. Nor should we, except perhaps in a little bit of exasperated jest, equate the utter disregard for ecclesial instruction that has lead to the current state of Sacred Music in the Church with disobedience to the Torah – the former certainly doesn’t merit the punishments described as the latter would. But I would like to suggest that there is some resonance in this story with many people like myself who have had the experience of the rediscovery of the Church’s beautiful designs on Sacred Music, especially if what we grew up with was far from those designs. Now this little anecdote from the Book of Kings didn't mean much to me personally until I had a similar experience with Sacred Music. Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s was an interesting time for a young Catholic in your average American parish. Already, that ‘contemporary’ music that they talked about in the 70’s was old and worn – I remember getting the distinct feeling 2 that the sounds I was hearing were the musical equivalent to felt banners, burlap vestments and clay chalices. It was thought that this is the music young people listen to and so the thought continued that it was to be used in sacred liturgy to ‘attract’ the youth. However, even as a teenager of about 14 or 15 years old I recognized that even the best ‘contemporary’ music the Church could offer was just going to be knock-offs of secular sounds that I could get in droves and in better quality elsewhere. Furthermore, it kind of struck me as odd that the older folks in the parish assumed I didn’t have the capacity for more mature music or that I couldn’t appreciate beauty if it was presented to me. You see, I had started listening to the classical music station on the radio, even setting my radio/alarm clock to turn on with that music playing. The beauty and the order of this classical genre stirred something in me that pop music never did. Sure, I loved the emotion and movement of “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys just like everyone else. My favorite band was actually Dave Matthew’s Band – I enjoyed the deeper thoughts and the jazz fusion sounds, but I have to be honest, I had more earworms from Beethoven than from the Beatles. There was something in what is termed “Classical” music that spoke to me of that which is deeper and more satisfying than the saccharine lyrics and rhythms of pop songs or even the existential poetry and moods of alternative rock. It had emotion, but it seemed to transcend emotion and get at something more solid: beauty, truth and goodness. I remember getting a CD of Chanticleer and being intrigued by the mellifluous sounds they were making with their voices. I was drawn by the notion that most of these tunes had ancient origins and were getting at that same truth, beauty and goodness. My dad bought me a CD of the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos and I was mesmerized by it. Rather than put me to sleep, like most people mockingly said it would do to you, it put me on a higher plane – my first real experience of the transcendence of chant. What is really mind-boggling to me is that I never really 3 associated that with what we did every Sunday. I hadn’t made a conscious connection between that search for truth beauty and goodness and the mysteries that I had served for years as an Altar Server and the music that was normally sung in those days. The way I had been formed was to associate Sunday with sappy music that honestly left you feeling good and upbeat most of the time; “Jesus Loves Me, so let us rejoice”, but it didn’t go much deeper than that. (a tangent – it is so often erroneous assumed that music at Church has to be upbeat. That is why most people don’t get chant at first – it is a bit moody, that is, in the modes are expressed the whole experience of humanity and takes each one seriously). What we were singing was religious music for sure and some was even pretty good and at times well performed, but it wasn't what the Church would describe as Sacred Music – that is, set aside specifically for Divine Worship. I probably could have guessed that the chant I was encountering was ‘our music’ as Catholics, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that it could be used at Mass – after all, that was ancient stuff – didn’t Vatican II forbid all that and say that we should sing “Gather us in” instead? My first experience of music planning was this practice of "sitting with the readings" and then trying to find hymns that would "reflect the theme". We were tasked with creating the infamous four-hymn sandwich. This meant looking through hymnals trying to find the right sentiment and tone – making all sorts of decisions based on feelings and emotions. Many times in our youth masses it was not unheard of to simply play the Christian Religious Music that was popular on the radio. We had no understanding of a distinction between religious music and sacred liturgical music. This happened in Youth groups, youth masses, at the “regular” Sunday Mass and even into the seminary in my earlier days. During my early days of seminary, however, it was becoming apparent that not all hymns were 4 created equally. The older ones had some depth to them, the newer ones didn’t always have that same gravitas. Some used scripture, some paraphrased scripture, some even parodied scripture. Oh, how we made fun of some of those for their silly out-of-date sentiments and comical tunes. I don’t ever remember singing “Lord of the Dance” with a straight face (perhaps it was hard to with a devil on my back). Many of them were influenced by non-Catholic theology, many were simply shallow and trite. Some were even outright heretical – as if we were to “build the city of God” by ourselves without God’s help or simply just “sing a new church into being”, because we didn’t like the one we had. The tunes were a mixed bag. Sure there were some that stuck in your head and there were even some that made you snap your fingers (we could have a whole tangent on rhythm based music as unsuited for the Divine Mysteries – I remember being quite caught off guard and a little put out that “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness” [Father of all wisdom, come to him and bless his name]. was just a riff from Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”). The music was oftentimes tortured and contorted; searching for novelty and a chance to copyright a new sound. Ok. But is sacred music supposed to be the product of my musings and the limiting options of a genre of music not particularly suited for the sacred mysteries? Is that the extent of musical selection? That is what I thought and it was all I knew growing up. But then I was in Theology School and I started reading what the Church had to say. This is where I felt like King Josiah being brought the book of the law of the Lord. Here for the first time I saw what Mother Church was asking of us as musicians. I discovered at the front of the old sacramentary that there was a whole document which detailed how Mass was supposed to be celebrated. In the GIRM I heard words like ordinary, proper antiphons and graduals from a book called the Graduale Romanum. I realized the Church, in her official playbook, was pointing 5 me to resources I had never laid eyes upon, nor even heard of, nobody had even thought to tell me about them when we were ‘planning the music for mass’. I found the Graduale Romanum, then the Liber Cantualis, which was all well and good. I thought, “these are some nice old books that my ancestors used to use.” But then I noticed the copyright in the front of the Graduale was 1974, and 1978 for the Liber Cantualis. “Hmm”, I thought, “very curious”. Then I found the Graduale Simplex (that was the one that did it for me). With the Simplex, I read the introduction and realized that this book was a direct product of the Second Vatican Council - a council that I had, with so many others, erroneously assumed had done away with all this “chanting” and “propers” and “ordinaries.” It was like scales came off my eyes and I finally saw that the Church had a wealth of sacred music to offer that had been tried in the crucible of tradition and orthodoxy.
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